Patient with a broken hip left at wrong house

A 93-year-old woman broke her hip after an ambulance crew left her alone at the wrong house.

The woman, who suffers from memory loss, had left hospital and should have been taken back to her home in Penarth, south Wales.

Instead she was taken to a house five miles away in Dinas Powys. The ambulance crew, who had mistaken her for another patient at the Morfa day unit at Barry Hospital, found a key under the doormat and let the pensioner into the empty house.

The woman's family said she protested that she did not live there. However, the crew believed she was confused and only realised their mistake when their 14-seat patient transport vehicle arrived at the right address and the patient's family discovered she was not on board.

The family claim the crew did not return immediately to collect her once their error was discovered. Instead, they dropped off other patients and did not return to the woman until an hour later.

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When they returned, they found her lying in the garden. She had tried to get out of the house and fallen over, breaking her hip.

The woman had surgery following the accident on Aug 20. She remains in hospital and her family said her condition had deteriorated.

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and the Welsh Ambulance Service have apologised to the woman and to her family for the distress caused.

A joint statement said: "Both organisations are reviewing the procedures for the discharge of older patients requiring ambulance transport in light of this incident."

Her family, who did not want to be identified, said they were considering legal action. Her 62-year-old daughter said: "I'm bitterly upset. It's beyond belief that a trained crew would leave a person in the wrong house. She must have been absolutely frantic.

"My Mum was afraid that the homeowner would come back and find her in his house. She managed to get out but fell on the garden path."

The pensioner lives with her daughter's family. Her daughter normally cares for her but twice a week the pensioner is taken to the hospital to give her family a break. The daughter said: "Since the accident, she is a frail, confused and frightened old lady."

Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, said: "The Welsh Assembly needs to look at what's happened and make sure this can never happen again."